Abstract

Common guidelines followed in the animation community include the idea that cartoon characters should be exaggerated
to better convey emotion and intent, whereas more realistic characters should have "matching" realistic motion.
We investigated the effects of rendering style and amount of facial motion on perceptions of character likeability,
intelligence, and extraversion. We used cartoon and more realistic-looking characters that were animated with tracked
actor motion. The motion was exaggerated and damped in 10% increments up to a 40% difference from the original motion.
We discovered that motion changes &plusmn 20% from original motion affected perceptions of likeability and intelligence
differently in the realistic-looking and cartoon characters. The realistic-looking characters benefited from increased motion
whereas the cartoon characters benefitted from damped motion. Furthermore, the amount of facial motion and perceptions of
extraversion were significantly correlated.

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Acknowledgements

This study was funded by NSF grant CCF-0811450. We thank Brooke Kelly, Moshe Mahler, Tomas Simon, Iain Matthews,
our actors, and Disney Research Pittsburgh staff, researchers, and interns for their help with this study.